Florida reports 74,481 new COVID cases as US prepares booster shot update for fall

ORLANDO, Fla. – COVID-19 booster shots for the fall will be updated to fight off newer omicron types, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA told vaccine makers their booster shots must be updated to add protection against newer strains of omicron, which makes up for over half of U.S. cases, according to the Associated Press.

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With the updated recipe, Pfizer and Moderna will have to receive authorization again in order for the boosters to be rolled out. According to the AP, Pfizer and Moderna were already creating boosters that add protection to the first omicron mutation.

This comes as children younger than 5 began receiving COVID-19 vaccinations. The FDA said benefits of the vaccine outweighed risks as hospitalizations surged during omicron among young children despite them not getting as sick from COVID-19 as older adults.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention opened another COVID vaccine option for older children by recommending Moderna shots for those 6-17 years old. This group has been able to get shots made by Pfizer since last year.

Globally, the World Health Organization said earlier this week the number of new cases rose 18%. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the newer omicron variants were driving up cases in 110 countries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Below is a breakdown of Florida COVID-19 data reported by the CDC and the state on July 1:

Cases

The CDC reported 11,677 new cases on Friday, based on daily reporting it gets from the Florida Department of Health.

There were 148,780 new coronavirus cases reported by FDOH over the last two weeks. Very similar to the numbers we reported two Fridays ago, new cases have held relatively steady with 74,481 cases reported this week and 74,299 cases reported the week before. Our last update on Jun. 16 had a two week total of 148,724 cases with 74,323 new cases for the week of Jun. 15 and 74,401 new cases for the week of Jun. 8.

Florida has seen 6,493,977 cases since the virus was first detected on March 1, 2020.

Deaths

The Florida Department of Health reported a cumulative death toll in Florida of 75,891. There were 795 fatalities recorded over the past two weeks, which we get by subtracting the number of deaths reported by DOH two weeks ago (75,096) from the current cumulative death toll.

The state stopped reporting the number of non-residents who died in Florida when the new weekly reporting method began.

Hospitalizations

The state Agency for Health Care Administration deleted its current COVID-19 hospitalization database and the state is no longer reporting how many patients have been hospitalized with the virus. However, Florida is still required to report that information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the CDC continues to release that information online. The most recent hospital numbers show 3,422 adult and 68 pediatric patients in Florida.

Positivity rate

The Florida Department of Health reported the percent of positive results from coronavirus tests was 19.4% for the weeks of June 17-June 30 but did not provide how many people were tested during the past two weeks. Health officials say the rate should remain between 5% and 10% to prove a community has a hold of the virus and is curbing infections.

Below is the Central Florida region breakdown of new cases and new vaccination numbers between June 17-June 30.

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